“I haven’t been able to see him, but your peeps said it was only a broken arm.”
“My peeps,” he repeated, making fun of me. At least he was acting like my Rex.
“I’ll go find Nate. But Rex,” I thought about what the doctor had said… Was he paralyzed?
He looked over at me, waiting. “The doctor said… The bullet was near your spine. After you were shot you couldn’t feel your legs. He said that you might not be able to…” I couldn’t finish. I choked back tears as he took my hand again.
“Penny—I’m not going to be paralyzed.”
“I-I know, it’s just… I’m afraid.”
“Sweetheart, look,” he said, gesturing toward his feet. They were moving.
“Oh thank God.” I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
“Loss of blood, pressure on the spinal cord—that caused the numbness. Luckily for me I got a surgeon with decent hands. My gut feels like a truck drove over it, but I can move just fine. Hand me my chart, Princess.”
“What?” He pointed to the end of his bed where an old-school metal covered clipboard with a stack of papers hung. “It’s not like the States…they are still keeping paper patient charts.”
I glanced at the chart, but argued, “Um, I don’t think you’re allowed to mess with that, they…”
“Give me my damn chart, baby girl.”
I handed it to him, my eyes on the door. I was a rule follower type, and Rex for sure was not. He flipped through the pages as I waited impatiently, eventually closing it and pointing to a hanging plastic bag at the end of the bed. “Is that my shit?” I looked over at the black plastic bag. “Oh… I don’t know…” I replaced the chart and looked through the plastic bag—Rex’s bloody clothes, his wallet, belt, shoes, and a small zipper bag of his jewelry floated around the bag. “What did the chart say?” I finally asked. He shrugged, “Nothing major. They got both bullets out, no apparent nerve damage, release as soon as I’m stable.” I didn’t believe him—the night prior I thought he was about to die, and now he made it sound fairly routine. “Maybe I’ll read it myself,” I argued. “It’s in Spanish, but knock yourself out,” he teased.
“I’m just worried, Rex. I mean, last night I was holding your insides in with my hand!”
His face softened. “I know, baby, I’m sorry. There’s nothing bad in the chart, I swear, but the wound is major. It’s going to take a long time to heal.”
We sat in silence for a long time until he asked, “Hey, is my wedding ring in there?”
“Seriously?” I snapped.
He looked confused. “What? I’ve worn that ring for over twenty years, it’s special to me.”
“The ring from a woman who tried to kill you!”
“Penny, I’m tired. Can we argue about this later? Will you please go check on Nate? And be careful. If anything happened to either of you, I would die. I love you—more than anything or anyone.”
“It’s hard to be mad at you when you say stuff like that,” I said, kissing him before heading toward the door.
“Tell the nurses I’m awake on your way out. I’m sure they’ll want to poke me with needles.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I murdered her. I killed your ex-wife!” I was inconsolable, the guilt enveloping me. Rex had been in the hospital several days—and he wouldn’t allow me to leave, so I slept in the empty bed next to him each night. The security staff from the compound brought me a suitcase with clothes, but I was going stir crazy in the hospital day after day. Nate was being held while they evaluated the bump on his head, but each day brought a new promise that he’d be released at any moment. Until then, Rex made a sizable donation to the hospital to ensure I’d be allowed to stay under his direct supervision.
After lunch that day, the weight of what I’d done—of shooting another human being—crashed down on me. I was inconsolable, becoming more and more upset as I relived the night in my head.
“Penelope! Stop it,” he snapped, reaching down to grasp his aching wound as he stilled. In a calmer voice, he said, “You didn’t murder anyone. She tried to kill me, and then went for you—you defended yourself and me, there’s nothing else you could do. You did well. I fucked up—I let arrogance and over-confidence cloud my judgment and it almost got both of us killed. But you—you saved my life, Penny.”
“You really didn’t think she’d do it?”
“No, I let past feelings interfere with my instincts. The Evelyn I loved was dead long ago. I guess she really didn’t ever love me.”
“Oh, she loved you Rex! She never stopped.”
He thought for a second and asked, “What makes you say that?”
“The passion—underneath that drug-addicted zombie façade, there was a woman scorned who would rather see you dead than not with her. The thing is—she wanted you the way she wanted you, not the way you are.”
He thought for a moment. “Not the way I am now. I changed a lot once I started doing the special ops shit—it was hard to go back to helping with the dishes and going out to a movie after all that. We grew so far apart, the path back was just too convoluted. It’s sad all around.”
“Do you ever want to have kids? Or was losing one just too hard?” I couldn’t help but ask; the question haunted me as I thought of Noah, his dead infant.
“Sure, I’d love to have babies. You feeling like breeding an army of mini Rexes and Nates?” It was nice to see him teasing me again. I smiled and answered, “Someday, I’d be honored to. But not yet!”
“It’s a deal, Princess.”
We sat in silence. I thought he’d dozed off to sleep when he asked, “How is Nate? Is it really just a broken bone, or is everyone bullshitting me?”
“It’s a broken arm, his left luckily. He has a bump on the head they want to evaluate, but other than that, he seems okay.”
“Why haven’t I been able to see him then?”
“Uh, he’s…I really don’t know. I think he feels like he let you down because I was taken. But, there’s no way he could have stopped those goons.”
“He needs to let that shit go. We all know he’d die for you. Is he letting them treat the pain?”
“No,” I answered honestly.
“Stubborn ass,” Rex shook his head in irritation, but his face betrayed a proud glow. Nate denying opiates showed his commitment to recovery from drug addiction.
“You heal better when pain is managed,” he said. “Have them give him this,” he added as he reached for a paper and pen from the bedside table. “It won’t trigger his addiction, but it’ll give him just enough pain relief that he won’t go reaching for something stronger.”
I took the paper—it looked like a prescription, scribbled and confusing.
“They don’t already know that?” I asked, not meaning to question him.
“No, Penny—this isn’t exactly The Mayo Clinic. They try, but…just take the paper to his doc, okay?” I nodded and headed for the door. “And I want to see him—now,” he commanded. “Uh huh,” I answered, knowing full well that Nate would have to be dragged to see Rex.
“But why?” I whined as I sat beside Nate’s bed. His arm was in a cast, but other than that he looked good.
“I was supposed to protect you, and I failed miserably—yet again.”
“He’s anxious to see you, Nate—in a good way. I think it hurts him that you haven’t been to see him.”
“No, he has you.”
“Stop that shit—it sounds like jealousy talking, and we’re beyond that. Get up and come with me or I’m wheeling your ass down there.” I stood up and walked to the door, ready to commandeer a wheelchair if needed. No way my two men were staying apart for one more minute.
With a stubborn sigh, Nate stood and pulled his hospital gown around him. “They’re letting me go this afternoon, might as well face the Colonel now,” he said. We walked across the long hospital to Rex’s room—Nate was silent, like a death row inmate being lead to imminent slaughter.
Rex smiled as Nate shuffled into his room. I squeezed Nate’s hand—more than a part of me was worried that Rex’s calm had been false. I held my breath as we approached Rex. He looked up at Nate and his expression warmed, and I knew we were going to be okay.
“Hey, man,” Rex said, reaching a hand to Nate. “How’s the arm?”
Nate froze—his face morphing into a ghostly white. He dropped my hand and flung himself at Rex’s side, kneeling on the floor by his bed. “Holy shit—you’re hooked up to all this, it’s all my fault…”
“It’s not,” Rex answered calmly, his fingers reaching over to run through Nate’s hair in an intimate gesture that had become their own.
“You told me to protect her…I put you in danger, I put…” Nate’s body shook as his mind went through the could-have-beens.
“You did what you could do. Evelyn paid off Maria to let those thugs into my house. Into our house.”